


Try Again

by Aiskuriimuneko



Category: Bakugan Battle Brawlers
Genre: Gen, alternative take on ep 4 bc why not, an organic learning moment? ig, and i wanted to add my oc in there bc why not, and more of like, i havent watched much of gundalian invaders either, i wanted it to be less about julie giving jake a million lessons at once, support rika/jake brotp lmao
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-19
Updated: 2021-03-19
Packaged: 2021-03-28 06:48:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30135624
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aiskuriimuneko/pseuds/Aiskuriimuneko
Summary: Takes place in episode 4 of Gundalian Invaders, "Brawler to Be." Jake is lost in the sauce and gets some advice from Julie.Written for Jake Appreciation Week.





	Try Again

**Author's Note:**

> Sort of an alternative take to what happens midway through the episode.
> 
> Rika Kumara is my bakugan oc, you can find/learn more about her here: https://marmeladebois.tumblr.com/tagged/chandrika%20kumara

The afternoon sun hangs low on the sky as Jake leaves football practice, his backpack slung over his shoulder. It had felt good to work out some of his frustrations through physical activities and football was ideal for roughhousing as much as one needed to. Now that practice was over, however, he is once more left to mull over the memories of yesterday’s match against Mason Brown and the humiliation that followed. These thoughts have kept him occupied all throughout today and don’t seem to want to leave, no matter how much Jake tries to distract himself from them.

What’s even worse is that he feels too embarrassed about the whole ordeal to face Dan now. How can he? It’s not every person who gets the opportunity to be coached by Dan Kuso himself and if this is the fruits of Dan’s labor, well. That just means Jake is a terrible student.

Jake walks from school with no aim or destination in mind and finds he’s taken the familiar route to the café where Julie works. When he’s about to cross the intersection next to the establishment, he spots Dan outside the café. He’s sitting by a table with someone else while Julie’s chatting with the two rather animatedly. A slight panic hits him and just as Jake thinks of going back the way he came, Dan raises himself from the table. He bids the two farewell and hops on his bike before disappearing into the distance in the opposite direction. Jake waits a minute or two before going over and taking his usual seat, which happens to be across from the other patron Dan had been sitting by. It appears to be a short, dark-skinned girl with dark hair, wearing a rather cute attire that looked very Darkus inspired. She’s taking pictures of her equally cute drink before noticing Jake’s stare and waving at him. He returns the wave with vague look on his face, wondering why he can’t quite place where he has seen her before.

Julie comes out from inside the café, her digital notepad at the ready. “Welcome! How may I—“ Julie says cheerily before seeing her newest customer. Her eyes twinkle with recognition. “Oh, hi Jake! How’re you doing?”

“Hey Julie,” Jake replies, trying to match her enthusiasm and coming up short. He raises a fist in a show of confidence. “You know me, I’m doing awesome as usual! Haha!” At his overly preppy response, Jake sees Julie’s smile waver a bit and he knows she’s not falling for it. He lowers his hand and slumps a little in his seat, enthusiasm gone. “Why, did. . .Dan say anything?”

Julie gives him a sympathetic smile as she tucks away her notepad in the pocket of her uniform. “I think we need to have a talk, big guy. I’ll go fetch something for us to drink and then I’ll be with you in a minute.”

Jake rubs his neck sheepishly but nods. Julie skips inside the café, leaving him to twirl his thumbs nervously as he waits. He knows Julie won’t scold him but he still isn’t anticipating the talk she has in store for him since it likely involves Dan being disappointed. Maybe the Brawlers had already decided they wouldn’t want to associate with him anymore and Dan had been looking for Jake to break the news—

“ _Hey. You lost or something, kid?_ ”

“Huh?” Jake says, blinking. He realizes he’s been staring quite intently at the girl in front of him and briskly sets to apologize. “Sorry! I didn’t mean to stare, dudette, I just—“ Jake begins before realizing yet another thing. “Whoa. That’s a pretty deep voice for a girl.”

She giggles and shakes her head. “That wasn’t me.”

Before Jake can ask who else it could’ve been, a Darkus Bakugan springs up from her pocket and rolls in an arc around her drink before popping out. “ _That would be me._ ”

Jake’s eyes almost pop out of their sockets with surprise. He rises out of his seat with excitement and leans over the table to get a better look. “Dude, that’s a talking Bakugan! I thought Drago was the only one left!” Or so it would seem but people who frequent Bakugan Interspace - or know of the rankings at the very least – would know of one other person who still possessed a talking Bakugan. It finally dawns on Jake who this person is.

“That’s Darkus Reaper! And you!” he exclaims before pointing at the girl. “You’re Rika Kumara, the 16th best brawler on the Interspace rankings!”

Rika gapes at Jake as he announces this, her cheeks turning slightly red. “Wha—you know who I am?”

Jake snorts as if it’s common sense to know. “T’yeah! I keep tabs on a bunch of high ranked brawlers, most of them are like, _the_ coolest!” he gushes. Despite not being in the top ten, he has definitely heard of Rika. She tends to make a performance out of her battles with colorful quotes and elaborate poses, while still devoting total focus on taking down her opponent. Reaper’s deadliness in battle is similarly a great topic of discussion, as he has very few losses on his record. He may have been Masquerade’s former partner but there is no doubt that for them to have climbed the rankings as they have, Rika must have considerable skill at brawling. They make an odd but effective team. “Reaper is definitely one of the toughest-looking Bakugan I’ve ever seen! And Rika, you’re almost like an idol!”

“OMG, stop it,” Rika giggles excessively while waving her hands about. “I’m not _that_ great!”

“ _Yeah, you might be careful about what you say, kiddo_ ,” Reaper says drily as he turns to look at Jake. “ _Or it’ll go straight to her head_.”

“Hey!” Rika pouts. “And what about yours? You’re not even that tough when you cried just last week watching Bambi.”

“ _I did not!_ ”

“Did too!” Rika retorts hotly, her cheeks puffed up. She ignores the way Reaper faces away from her and mutters _I wasn’t crying_ so she can focus on Jake instead. He seems starstruck with the way they are interacting. “You’ve never seen a talking Bakugan before?”

Jake shakes his head. “Never! Well, except for Drago but he’s always seemed like the exception.” A part of him supposes that it always made sense for the top ranked brawler to have a sentient Bakugan.

Rika reclines in her seat and closes her eyes with a smile. “I remember when I used to wish really hard for a talking Bakugan. I wanted someone cool and confident to talk to, someone who could be my friend since I didn’t have any. Not long after that, Reaper came through a portal and hit me right in the head!” Rika elaborates, pointing at her forehead. She proceeds to scoop the still brooding Reaper in her hands and holds him right in front of her, her lips puckered as she coos at him. “And now we’re the bwestest of fwiends~”

“ _Cut that out_ ,” Reaper snaps, but it lacks any real heat. 

Jake smiles at the display and rests his head on the palm of his hand. “I wish I had a talking Bakugan,” he says wistfully. He then adds quietly with his eyes downcast. “Maybe then Mason wouldn’t have toyed with me like that.” 

Reaper lets out a snort. “ _A talking partner isn’t going to do you much good if you have no fighting experience, kid. What you need is a strategy_.”

Jake blinks at that. “A strategy?”

“That’s right, a strategy!”

Jake flinches as Julie appears by his side in an instant, seemingly having materialized out of nowhere. She places a citrus smoothie in front of him and plops down in the empty seat next to Rika with a fruit smoothie of her own. “ _That’s_ how you’ll beat Mason.”

Jake rubs his neck again, avoiding her stare. He sees Rika staring at him instead, mouth slightly open and he can practically tell her thoughts are _oh, it’s_ that _Jake_. Which confirms that they were talking about his loss before he came. “How will I do that? I threw everything I had at Mason, and he sent it right back in my face and then some.”

Julie leans in towards him, her eyes narrowed and locked on his. “Are you saying he’s stronger than you?”

“Of course not!” Jake replies indignantly.

“Good, ‘cause he’s not. He just had his own strategy and you fell for it,” Julie says, knocking gently on Jake’s head to emphasize her point. “because you didn’t cool your head.”

“What’s wrong with that?” Jake huffs. “I’m always fired up. And so is Dan the Man and he always wins.”

Julie rolls her eyes. “Jake, I know you admire Dan since he’s at the top of the rankings and he’s teaching you how to brawl, but his way of doing things only really work out because he’s _Dan_. It’s not gonna help you much if you try to copy him,” she shakes her head before propping her face up with one hand. “Trust me, this is coming from someone who used to be his no. 1 cheerleader.”

Rika snickers from her seat right next to Julie. “Now she cheers for the opposite team. Heyo!”

Jake laughs before reaching over to give her a high-five. “Good one!”

Julie rolls her eyes yet again at that but still smiles. “I think you mean _both_ teams,” she corrects. “Anyway. My point is that you and Dan are similar but you’re not the same person. You should find a battle strategy that fits your style, not one that’s like his.”

Jake crosses his arms and appears to be deep in thought. “Hmm. One that suits my style, huh?”

Julie nods, her fingers twirling the straw of her smoothie around in the glass. “Mmhm. But most importantly, you need to learn to be calm and observe. When you observe your opponent, you might anticipate they’re trying to do and be able to stop them,” she continues. “Dan told me you haven’t been brawling for very long or fought against enough people to have that kind of experience, so I’d say that’s what trips you up.”

Jake nods and looks down at his drink before taking a sip. It sounds so simple when Julie puts it like that. Maybe he isn’t such a lost cause after all. “Did he say anything else? Like. . .kicking me off the team?”

Julie blinks before her eyes soften. “No, silly. He’s actually been really worried about you. And besides, that’s not how the Battle Brawlers roll. If someone’s not feeling their best, we don’t toss them out. I think you already know that.“

Jake sighs, frustrated and annoyed at himself all at once. “I do, it’s just. . .” he swallows. “I feel like I let everyone down.”

“Trust me, you haven’t. Not the ones who matter to you anyway,” Julie replies. Her hand reaches over to squeeze Jake’s forearm. “We’ve all got your back.”

Jake smiles at her, feeling much better. “Thanks, Julie.”

“No problem,” Julie winks before taking a large sip of her own beverage. She sighs contently before fixing Jake with a firm look. “Okay, back to business. I’m sure you want to challenge Mason again and settle the score, right?”

“Of course! I can’t get my head back in the game unless I show that guy what’s for!”

“In that case, you’ll need to practice a lot and practice hard,” Julie nods. “So Dan and I found the perfect person to help you train to brawl strategically.”

Jake raised a brow in confusion. A new practice partner? “Who? Is it Marucho? Or—no way, don’t tell me it’s Shun?!”

Rika bounces out of her seat as if on cue, twirling around before striking a pose. “Ta-da! That would be me!”

Jake takes a second or two to process before he makes big eyes. “Wait, _Rika_ is going to help me train?”

Julie nods before explaining. “Mmhm! Reaper specializes in nullifying his opponent’s abilities and gate cards.” At this, Reaper lets out a snort that sounds pleased. “There’s no better duo to teach you how to think outside the power-boosting box you’re stuck in. You’ll have no choice but to come up with an actual strategy.”

“Oh,” Jake says, scratching his head. “I guess you’re right.”

There is a sort of disconnect between Rika’s smaller size and her reasonably impressive ranking that gives him pause for a moment. It almost feels like asking your little sister to tutor you with the math problems you’ve been having troubles with. Rika bounces impatiently on her heels, her hands clenched. “Don’t worry, Jakie! Reaper and I will make you stronger in no time!” she says. “Reaper even said he’d make sure not to rough you and Coredem up too much!”

“ _I’m pretty sure I never said that_ ,” Reaper adds gruffly. Rika glares down at him with puffed up cheeks. Jake chuckles nervously at that. “Sounds like he’s gonna be fun to work with.”

Rika goes over to whisper not so quietly into Jake’s ear. “Don’t let him scare you, he watches Pretty Protectors when he thinks I’m not looking.”

Jake makes large eyes at Reaper, his frame trembling with barely contained laughter. “ _Pretty Protectors?_ No way, dudette, my neighbor’s kid watches that show like, every day after school!”

Reaper harrumphs in quite the annoyed fashion. “ _This is not helping your case at all, kiddo_.”

Jake quickly remembers his position and drops to his knees on the ground, his hands pressed together in apology. “I’m sorry Mr. Reaper sir, please teach me!”

Julie snickers from the sideline, watching the exchange with an amused smile. “Something tells me that any chance you had of mercy are now officially gone, _Jakie_.”

* * *

They book an empty arena for a few hours to train Jake and help develop his style of battling. Jake quickly realizes that Rika and Reaper use a completely different fighting style than Dan and Drago. Whereas Dan tends to hit first and hit hard, Rika waits for him to attack and goes on the defensive by cancelling out Coredem’s abilities. Every time Jake tries to raise his Bakugan’s power level through either a character card or a gate card, it’s immediately taken down again. He loses again and again and feels no less frustrated each time it happens, but Julie and Rika are very patient and spend time reviewing the sessions over in detail to locate his mistakes and how he should improve.

After his third loss, he finally has a breakthrough.

“Ability, activate!” Jake calls out, flashing a glowing card. “Core Knuckle!”

Coredem’s hands glow bright as he sends strikes of energy towards Reaper, his power increasing with 300 Gs and surpassing Reaper’s at 900. Reaper seems unimpressed at the display and doesn’t move to dodge. “ _Hasn’t learned yet, has he?_ ”

“Ability, activate!” Rika calls out, bringing out a card of her own that glows purple. “Double Dimension!”

Coredem’s attack fizzles out before it can strike Reaper and his power level falls back again, which seems to have been anticipated. Jake, however, brings out a new card.

“Activate Dimension Fall!” he calls out. Rika gasps, her ability card turning gray as it has been frozen. “What?!”

“Dimension Fall lets me nullify _your_ ability,” Jake grins. “Thanks for letting me take a page from your book, dudette! And now I activate Scale Arrow!”

Coredem’s body glows orange as energy builds up and gathers in his chest for a fatal blow, 400 Gs added to his power from the ability. The blow takes out Reaper before Rika can recover and her Life Force is reduced by 40 percent as a result. She beams at Jake as Coredem returns to him in ball form. “That’s the spirit! You stopped me from cancelling out your attack instead of thinking about raising your power level!”

Jake rubs his neck, sheepish from the praise but returns her enthusiasm. “All thanks to you and Julie’s awesome coaching!”

Reaper pops out on top of Rika’s open palms, seemingly impressed. “ _I’ll admit you got the drop on me this time, but the battle is far from over, kiddo.”_

Rika assumes position, a gate card ready between her fingers. “Yeah, you’re asking for it now, Jakie! You ready?”

“Born ready, dudette! Bring it!”

* * *

The arena is packed with quite a lot of people during the rematch of Mason Brown and Jake Vallory, many of which voice their displeasure at Jake and their doubts of him winning this battle. Dan, Marucho and Ren watch from the sidelines with various looks of concern, now joined by Julie and Rika who’ve come to watch and cheer him on. Though somewhat nervous, there is no denying the air of calmness that surrounds Jake this time, keeping him focused on his opponent instead of the booing crowd.

The match begins.

During the first round, Jake seems to stick to his original tactic of using abilities to boost Coredem’s power before going on the offensive. Mason easily deflects the attacks but Jake retaliates with a nullifying ability when Mason goes in for an attack of his own. Coredem strikes and Avior is sent back, which stuns not only Mason but the audience as well. His friends however cheer loudly from their positions.

“Keep it up, Jake!” Marucho shouts.

“Yeah! Let him have it, buddy!” Dan adds enthusiastically. Jake gives them a thumbs up before Mason tosses out a gate card on the field.

“I can’t believe how much he’s changed,” Dan remarks with surprise and pride in equal measures. A lopsided smile grows on his lips. “It’s like he’s a totally different brawler.”

Julie hums, her arms placed behind her back. “Jake really wanted to prove to you and to himself that he could do this,” she says before bumping her hip playfully into Dan. “Well? Do you think he’s Battle Brawler material?”

Dan frowns at that. “I was always gonna make him a member of the Battle Brawlers, even before all this,” he says defensively. However, one look at the current match and at Jake’s confident demeanor has him smiling again. “But I get it. He needs to do this for himself.”

“Be sure to give him a big hug when he wins!” Rika giggles. “His hugs are killer.”

“ _We know_ ,” Dan and Marucho say in union, though nothing in their statement hints that they’re going to deny Jake the opportunity.

The crowd goes wild as Avior goes down yet again and the battle system announces Jake as the winner of the match.

**Author's Note:**

> ok so i realize. reaper's whole nullifying abilities schtick isn't really a big deal after bb but lets pretend that doesn't matter. jake wasn't really using any nullifying abilities before his talk with julie anyway so it's not super farfetched lmao.


End file.
